Almost the end...

Hello MOPS families! We are nearing the end of our year together. Today the children will begin working on a super secret craft which they will unveil to you after our final meeting May 12. Please don't ask them about it and spoil the surprise!!!

Our book for today was Weird Parents by Audrey Wood.
As summer approaches we are sometimes overwhelmed by the thought of how to fill their summer days. Here are a few ideas of things to do with the kids to keep all of you smiling!!!

I have found a great group (thanks to former MOPS Mommy Andrea Pohlot!) It's called Mommy Adventure Club and it is run by an honest to goodness stay at home mom who wanted to do things in L.A. that were fun for her as well as her kids. She organizes trips all over-- some that cost while others are free, but the real treasure on her site is the list of 101 things to do in L.A. with kids. I have been amazed at some of the things on this list that I never knew existed-- I am hoping to get to all 101 myself!

People know that I love all things Disney and the Disney company has some amazing travel suggestions throughout California.

I believe I have mentioned this site before (this site even puts the calendar on the side of our blog) but I love Go City Kids! They have all sorts of resources for daily activities all around Southern California. From simple things like story times at libraries and free food nights to concerts and special museum or theme park exhibits-- this site has it all!

We will be having room reunions during the summer so that your child can reconnect with friends from their room. Please check the clipboards for the dates and locations of these reunions. I will try to send out reminder e-mails, but my Mommy brain kicks in during the heat of the summer :)

As this is our last blog entry for this year, I hope that you all have a wonderful summer! It has been my pleasure serving as the Moppet Coordinator and I look forward to seeing many of you next year!

Better late than never...

Sorry it took awhile to get this up, but finally I'm getting caught up.

The kids read the darling book A Frog ThingWe did a Spring Cleaning craft today-- we put out all of our bits and pieces from old crafts and let the kids imagination run wild. Some kids left with one completed craft while others left with many!!!

It is hard to imagine that we only have two more meetings left. In next weeks blog look for some summer ideas to do with your kids.

Happy Spring!

Spring is here!!!!

Since we had a free day today, so did the kids! They were able to play, color and blow bubbles to their hearts content. There was no book today because I didn't want our Mom's to miss out on their fun!

I do have some recommendations for bubble themed books though that I'd like to share with you:

Pop! A Book About Bubbles-- this answers any questions little ones may have about how bubbles work.

Bubbles, Bubbles-- this is more of a bathtime book. The darling little girl in it creates things out of the bubbles in her tub like a bubble wig.

Bubble Riding-- this was going to be our story of the day. It has amazing pictures and is designed to lower stress and increase creativity in kids. It is almost a meditation for the kids-- very fun!

As the weather gets nicer, don't forget to spend some time blowing bubbles with the kids. We are sending the kids home with bags full of bubble blowing fun for the whole family. Enjoy!!!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!!

Today the children were visited by a leprechaun who hid treasure for them to find! We hope that they enjoyed their pots of gold (and other treasures) as well as the Lucky Charms cereal!!!

The kids were treated to the book Jack and the Leprechaun by Ivan Robertson.It is a very sweet story about an American mouse who goes to visit his family in Ireland and they teach him all about this fun holiday.

To get you into the Irish spirit this week, I'll share some St. Pat's ideas with you!

In the week leading up to the big day why not try watching some movies to get you in the spirit. This site has YouTube clips from the top 10 movies-- some of which are intended for older audiences.

Leprechauns are quite tiny-- try this game where the kids have to find tiny objects that the little sprites left behind!

For those of us who are not up on the reasons behind the symbols of the holiday you can check out this site that tells you the origin of shamrocks, leprechauns, Blarney Stones, and more!

To continue last meetings theme of cooking with the kids, try to make rainbow Jello or Irish soda bread.

The music teacher in me would like you to incorporate some of these songs into your holiday celebration. Many of them are to tunes you already know like I'm a Little Teapot and BINGO.

I hope that you find your own pot of gold this St. Patrick's day!

Happy National Pancake Day!!!!

I hope that you and your family get to go to IHOP for your free stack of pancakes today! We celebrated this fun day with the kids in many different ways.

The kids in rooms 1 and 2 read the book Pancakes for Breakfast by Tomie de Paola....actually they didn't read it they told the story. You see this is a picture book about a woman who wakes up and wants pancakes for breakfast. She finds that she doesn't have all of the ingredients so she goes to get them. We asked the kids to tell us the story after looking at the pictures.

The rest of the kiddos read If You Give a Pig a Pancake by Laura Numeroff.
They all made a fabulous breakfast magnet for your fridge complete with eggs, bacon and PANCAKES!!! We hope that it will make you smile when you see it.

Today I thought I would talk to you about cooking with the kids. Yes, I know that it is sometimes more hassle than fun but there are so many skills that they gain by spending time helping you in the kitchen.

Math skills, confidence, spacial recognition, and an increased desire to try different foods are all good things that come from cooking with kids. The biggest drawbacks are safety issues and an increase in clean-up-- but these are minor when you look at all they get out of it!

I have several cookbooks for little ones that I love!

Paula Deen's My First Cookbook is colorful, easy to read and simple to follow. The only problem is that all of the pictures are hand drawn, so yours won't look quite like the pictures.

For those Sesame Street fans out there we have Big Block Party. It is a storybook with recipes in the end. The best thing about this book is that you can prepare the food then read the book and eat along with the story! I don't know of any kid who wouldn't want to eat Oscar's Delicious Cups of Dirt!

The Toddler Cookbook is designed just for 3 and 4 year olds. They have pictures for each step of the recipe with real-life kid chefs cooking the recipes. The recipes are simple with very few ingredients and many of them are very healthful. It is written by Annabel Karmel and she has an amazing website with videos and other kid/food information.

My last reccomendation is Kid Favorites Made Healthy. This is a Better Homes and Gardens cookbook with over 150 recipes that kids love. Libi and I recently made the banana bread and it was gone in a flash-- very yummy! Many of the recipes have pictures, but the best feature of this book is the nutritional information for every recipe-- great if you are doing Weight Watchers or counting calories!

I hope these ideas have inspired you to get in the kitchen with the kids. I know you will make yummy recipes and lasting memories together!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Today the children will get some love from our workers in the form of a fun craft, great story, and Valentine's sugar cookies.

The Very Special Valentine by Christine Tagg pictures by Maggie Kneen was our story.
The kids made fabulous sunglasses and cases for their Valentine's wardrobe.I know that Joie and others are looking for some easy and inexpensive Valentine's ideas-- so here are some I found. Enjoy!

Start the day with heart shaped muffins and pink milk. When you bake your muffins use cupcake papers and put a marble between the paper and the baking tray to make them heart shaped. Add red food coloring to your milk to make it pink-- very festive!

Play some Valentine's dominoes at home. This is a great game for all ages... very easy to play!

For lunch, cut everything into heart shapes-- your sandwiches, fruit, jello, cookies-- just use a cookie cutter.

Who doesn't like Bingo... especially a Valentine's themed one? You can use conversation hearts as place makers and then eat them for dessert!

I found a cute site with Valentine's on a dime ideas. My favorite was take your hubby to a bookstore-- browse and enjoy the silence. This sounds way better to me than getting dressed up and going to a crowded restaurant!

I know that our group is all about Moms, but I found a great article for Dads. Send your husband to this site and help him get some really fun Valentine's ideas for you and the kids!

After the kids are in bed and you are snuggling in for the night, pull out this silly Mad Lib. Ask your hubby for his words then read your silly love letter.

Whatever you do, I hope you have a wonderful Valentine's Day!

Happy Inauguration Day!!!

Hello MOPS families! Today we celebrate an important day for America-- the peaceful transition of power from one leader to another. It only happens every four years, so we are celebrating in the Moppet rooms!

Today the kids heard the story "If I Were President" by Catherine Stier. She has some really great activities that go along with this story in addition to other works she's had published!The kids made a patriotic craft for your home today. You can either display it now, wait until 4th of July, or keep it up all year long!

If you have a little artist in your family, you might want to visit this site that has printable coloring pages for President Obama's Inaguration.

If that wasn't enough crafting I found another site that has a biography of our new president in addition to a paper plate craft idea (not the one we did in class), and some more pages to print.

For the history buffs out there, Our White House offers some great things to read for kids to explain about inaugurations in general and Obama's specifically.

Finally for those of you who want to go really over the top-- try hosting your own Inaugural Ball tonight for dinner. Serve your meal on your best china, dress up in your fanciest clothes, and then dance the night away. It would be a fun memory for all of you :)